Wellesley Symphony Orchestra to present Holiday Pops concert

Wednesday

Soprano Elaine Daiber will join the orchestra for several selections. This year the winners of the contest to perform “All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth” are two sisters, Lillian and Josephine Arnold Mages. Maestro Max Hobart will lead the orchestra and singers in holiday favorites, including Tchaikovsky’s “Waltz of the Flowers” from “The Nutcracker” and “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” narrated by Leslie Holmes.

Santa will drop in, the audience can join a singalong, kids will be able to join Santa onstage to sing Christmas songs, and soprano Leslie Holmes will sing “I’ll Be Home for Christmas.”

Daiber is a recent graduate of the Graduate Vocal Arts Program at Bard Conservatory, where she studied with Edith Bers. She earned a Bachelor of Music from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in vocal performance with an emphasis in theater and will continue her studies this fall at the New England Conservatory Graduate Performance Diploma program, where she will study with Bradley Williams.

Daiber will return to the Tanglewood Music Center as a vocal fellow, where she will sing the principal role of Dede in a new production of Leonard Bernstein’s “A Quiet Place,” in celebration of the composer’s centennial year. Daiber recently performed the role of Milica in Ana Sokolović’s “Svadba” at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts. Previous new music engagements include performances as a vocalist in Steve Reich’s “Drumming with So Percussion,” the Boston premiere of composer Sky Macklay’s “Glossolalia” and the world premiere performance of Nathan Davis’s “The Sand Reckoner” at the Tanglewood Music Center.

Recent engagements have seen the soprano in various performances: a debut with the Albany Symphony excerpting the Countess in Mozart’s “Le Nozze Di Figaro”; a vocal fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center, where festival highlights included performing in a concert of Ella Fitzgerald songs alongside mezzo-soprano Stephanie Blythe and soprano Dawn Upshaw; and selections from Berg’s “Sieben Frühe Lieder” with the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra. In her performance with the Grammy Award-winning Albany Symphony, Daiber “was a standout as the Countess, singing with a shadowy, unfolding beauty,” according to Albany Times Union.

Lillian and Josephine Arnold Mages are 10- and 8-year-old sisters from Waltham. They began their musical career in the living room, playing ukulele along with the PBS children’s television show “Peg + Cat.”

When they were ages 6 and 4, they graduated to learning violin. Lillian and Josephine enjoy playing classical violin, Texas fiddling and Irish fiddling and compete in contests locally and around the U.S. In 2018, Lillian and Josephine played onstage at 6:26 a.m. on Groundhog Day in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, to welcome Punxsutawney Phil, who predicted six more weeks of winter. In 2017, Lillian won the National Oldtime Fiddle Championship for “Small Fry” 8 and Under and in 2018, she won the youth division 14 and under at the 38th annual Banjo and Fiddle Contest in Lowell.

Josephine, who was 7 at the time, took second in Small Fry division at the 2018 National Oldtime Fiddle Contest in Weiser, Idaho, and placed third in the youth division of the Lowell contest. They both enjoy playing violin, mandolin, guitar and ukulele with their older sisters in their sisters band, Queen of the West. Besides playing music, Lillian and Josephine enjoy soccer, archery, playing with their dogs and their bunny and activities with Waltham Troop 89190 of the Girl Scouts.

Tickets for the concerts are $25 for adults, $20 for seniors and students and free for ages 12 and younger. Tickets may be purchased at Wellesley Books, Andrews Pharmacy, online, at the door and at P.O. Box 81860, Wellesley Hills, MA, 02481.